Clayton Christensen

2011 Ranking: #1

Shortlisted: 2013 Thinkers50 Best Book Award

Winner: 2011 Thinkers50 Innovation Award

One of the world’s pre-eminent experts on innovation, Clayton Christensen topped the Thinkers50 in 2011 and now 2013. He is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and one of the world’s foremost experts on innovation and growth. He is also founder of Innosight, a consulting firm that uses his theories to help companies create new growth businesses.

His seminal work, The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), received the Global Business Book Award for the best business book of the year. It has been followed by The Innovator’s Solution (2003); Seeing What’s Next (2004); Disrupting Class (2008) looking at the root causes of why schools struggle and offering solutions; The Innovator’s Prescription (2009) examining how to fix the US healthcare system;The Innovators’ DNA (2011); and The Innovative University (2011).

Christensen’s most recent book, How Will You Measure Your Life: Finding Fulfillment Using Lessons from Some of the World’s Greatest Businesses (2012), co-authored with James Allworth and Karen Dillon, was nominated for the Thinkers50 Best Book Award in 2013.